Shiner bounced after falling twice to D'Hanis

CONVERSE - Seven seniors went through graduation ceremonies on Friday night and Saturday they played final baseball game for Shiner.

The Comanches celebrated Friday night, but were downcast late Saturday after being eliminated from the playoffs by D'Hanis.

The good feeling Shiner had after rolling to a 10-0 win in Game 1 of their best-of-three Class 1A regional semifinal series on Thursday was gone after the Cowboys claimed 12-3 and 4-0 wins in Game 2 and 3 at the Judson Field.

"We've been playing since Little League and we had a good run in Little League and I don't think I'll ever forget that season," said Shiner senior Zach Reese. "I don't think I'll ever forget this season."

Reese won't want to think about Games 2 and 3, which ended Shiner's season at 23-9.

"Things didn't go in our favor today," Reese said. "We beat them Thursday and I feel like maybe we slept on them a little bit. That's just the way it goes sometimes."

D'Hanis improved to 27-5 and moved into the regional final against Fayetteville thanks to the efforts of pitcher Kaleb Keith.

Keith, who will play at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, worked three scoreless innings in Game 2, before coming back to pitch a complete-game three-hitter in Game 3.

"He kind of threw what we thought when we scouted him," said Shiner coach Daniel Boedeker. "He works with his fastball and throws his slider in there some. We just didn't take a real good approach at times."

The Comanches had three hits and struck out eight times against Keith in Game 2. Shiner had three hits and struck out 10 times against Keith in Game 3.

"I think we were pressing a little bit because we got behind and we thought we had to do too much," Boedeker said. "They press a little bit and they swing too much and it causes them to tighten up and it wasn't an effort thing, the effort was definitely there, they were just putting too much pressure on themselves at the plate."

D'Hanis coach Todd Craft decided to pull Keith after three innings in Game 2 after the Cowboys had taken an 8-0 lead in the top of the fourth.

Reliever Jackson Zerr made it possible for Keith to come back and pitch seven innings in Game 3 by limiting Shiner to three runs and striking out six, despite topping out at 67 mph on the radar gun.

"We needed to put it in play to make them get us out and get on and make something happen and we didn't do that," Boedeker said. "If we could have held our own in those middle innings and made him stay out there a little longer, we might have seen some more of their pitching."

D'Hanis scored eight of its runs in Game 2 against Reese with two outs. Shiner hurt itself with three errors and a number of defensive miscues.

"I thought we could have done a better job of executing overall," Boedeker said. "They hit the ball on us the first game, they had some two-out hits with two strikes and that's just baseball."

Jacob Stafford started Game 3 for Shiner and held the Cowboys in check for two innings. But in the third he yielded a single to Clint Rothe, a walk to Keith, a two-run double to Chance Barlow and a RBI single by Cody Zerr before giving way to Game 1 starter Ky Sandelovic.

Sandelovic allowed only an unearned run, but the Shiner offense was unable to get on the scoreboard.

"I thought about it," Boedeker said about starting Sandelovic in Game 3. "Jacob's been pitching well for us all year and we wanted to see how many innings he could go. We told him to get us as far as he could. He battled there and they just once again got their clutch hits and jumped on us."

The Comanches reached the regional final last season before being eliminated in Game 3 of a series by eventual state champion Johnson City. Boedeker admitted this year's finish was just as difficult.

"It's tough on them," he said. "You want to see them do well because they worked really hard. The whole group's worked hard all year and you wish you had a better outcome for them. They're always tough. It's going to be something that eats on us for a while. No loss is ever an easy loss."